Fast Facts for Patient Safety in Nursing

Book excerpt: "This unique Fast Fact serves as a quick resource for foundational, relevant data, knowledge, and vital information, not only about the nature of medical errors, but why they occur. More importantly, Hunt shows us how to comprehensively address problems: highlighting the need for both academic and clinical professional development, emphasizing approaches, as theory-informed practices; acknowledging importance of human caring, power, relationship, and such practices as mindful presence" —Jean Watson, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, LL(AAN) Founder, Watson Caring Science Institute Distinguished Professor/Dean Emerita, University of Colorado Denver This practical resource helps nurses develop the skills they need to avoid medical errors and promote patient safety. Based on the most current research and guidance from principal scientific/academic boards, the text identifies the most significant errors and their causes and describes how nurses can develop and improve critical thinking, logic, and clinical judgement to improve patient outcomes. This book presents an overview of common preventable issues and their causes, including medication errors, patient falls, pressure ulcers, infections, and surgical errors. It focuses on strategies for becoming a safe practitioner through education and competency development, while highlighting major national safety initiatives with improved outcomes. This Fast Facts discusses several theories that promote quality of care and concrete methods for fostering critical thinking and reasoning. It examines prioritization and delegation as a way to develop skills in addition to scope of practice, intuition, ethics, leadership, and emotional intelligence. The final chapter addresses patient safety using a holistic approach encompassing cultural humility and artificial intelligence. Each chapter includes an introduction, learning objectives, an illustrative case vignette, discussion questions, concise "tips from the field," special topics, Fast Facts boxes, suggested assignments, and resources for further study. Key Features: Helps nurse managers to prioritize and address specific safety and medical errors immediately Delivers practical tips on improving patient care and outcomes Provides step-by-step guidance on preventing medication errors—the leading cause of adverse events Presents multiple strategies to develop critical thinking and judgment Offers interviews with patient safety experts for context and application Includes case studies, tips from the field, Fast Facts boxes, tables, discussion questions, suggested assignments, and more